DHEC estimates over 5,000 South Carolinians have recovered from COVID-19

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) – The Department of Health and Environmental Control released new coronavirus recovery numbers on Friday.

The agency said that as of May 14, DHEC has “symptoms onset data” for 6,043 people. Symptoms onset data means that the agency knows the date when a person first showed signs of illness, which helps officials track the patient’s recovery.

DHEC officials said of that of those patients, 84%, or 5,076 people, have recovered from the virus.

DHEC outlined how they develop its recovery rate:

Those who reported being hospitalized were deemed as “recovered” based upon having no reported adverse outcome reported as of > 32 days since their illness onset.

Those who reported not being hospitalized were deemed as “recovered” based upon having no reported adverse outcome reported as of > 14 days since their illness onset.

Those where hospitalization status was unknown were deemed as “recovered” based upon having no reported adverse outcome reported as of > 32 days since their illness onset.

DHEC explains that the recovery rate is based on “symptoms onset” information, so the percentage is based on the number of individuals that the agency has “symptoms onset” data for, not the total number of cases in the state.